Depends on your definition of "weird" or "unconventional". There are some fantasy authors who believe that using magic for anything other than blowing shit up/killing people is unconventional. I can think of all kinds of ways stuff like elemental magic could be used.
- Water
- Summon a small raincloud to water your crops/garden.
- Create currents to help keep your boat on course.
- Move a little ball of water around in the light to entertain your baby.
- Air
- Use a light breeze to blow dust off stuff.
- Summon some wind to move clouds around.
- Dry your clothes if you get them wet.
As for weird elemental magics, I think I've created one- Body magic. I was trying to create an eight-element magic system that you could slot Pokemon's seventeen-element system into, so I created Body magic to accommodate the Fighting and Normal types.
"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."I've always wanted to write a story where the main characters had control over chemical elements. So you'd have, like, carbon power, which would be useful and potentially very deadly, and tungsten power, which would be awesome but useless, because not that much is really made of tungsten.
Anyway, both air and water powers could very easily be used to kill people. Control over weather, although that could get complicated what with chaos butterflies and so on. You could essentially move things telekinetically by pushing the air around them. Maybe if you were really good, you could create sound by vibrating air molecules. That's all I can think of for now.
edited 16th Mar '11 10:21:13 AM by cityofmist
Scepticism and doubt lead to study and investigation, and investigation is the beginning of wisdom. - Clarence DarrowEarth
- producing better soil
- preventing weeds in your garden
- strengthening herbs for poisons/potions (if you have those)
- keeping the land steady (very helpful and VERY practical in areas with corrosion)
- prevent crop disease
Fire
- preventing wood houses/crops from burning
- ability to heat houses efficiently
- interrogation, which isn't practical for a farmer but is for a politician/guard/mercenary/pirate/anyone who will have enemies.
- very useful for blacksmiths in general.
I also thought air could be used to send messages, just send your voices to one another via wind currents.
To me lightning is more a "KILL IT" power, but it could certainly synthesis electricity in a fantasy world. Again, torture, or maybe making glass (sand+lightning+a few other conditions=glass)? You could have a coastal society of epic glass blowers because the prevalence of lightning magic/manipulation.
edited 16th Mar '11 5:15:59 PM by AwayLaughing
Smithing (so everything from nails to armour), making jewellery, in fights you could really, really do a lot of damage to a sword or metal tipped arrows. Pretty much anything that had metal could be targeted. It would pose problems with fake money, the forgeries could be brilliant and you'd need another metal manipulator to judge it. If you use that I'd strongly suggest making it so the metal break down into "I can only manipulate steel/iron/silver/copper/brass/gold/sing metal of your choice".
In any not-metal poor nation an elemental who could easily manipulate all metals would be a huge menace if they chose to be.
Water food crops, water animals, prevent dehydration of horses/work animals during the day, better to bath with, like Galcia said control water currents with boats, help direct fish using currents.
I really, really don't want to come off as rude here but surely you've thought up some of your own you can throw at us? Helps with brain storming.
In one old idea I had for a story involving a Magic, the main character specialized in air magic to the point of being able to manipulate the individual gasses. He used this to create areas with rapidly decreasing oxygen around his opponents to weaken them while drawing in purified are for himself.
On the flip side, at one point he would have fought a fire specialist who would try to kill him by igniting all that oxygen rich air around the guy.
and on a similar note, as others have pointed out, the air magician also tended to use his abilities to nullify sounds he makes as well as for ventriloquism. He was very much to be a bit of a Guile Hero
edited 16th Mar '11 7:38:17 PM by SakuraTenshi
I never thought that far into the story, but probably earth. Sure he can nullify the vibrations he makes in the air, but not the ones he makes by moving on the ground (E.I. Toph powers), stone spears being too heavy to knock away with wind, or simply being held by the ground or being crushed to death. If I recall, ultimately what made certain elements seem more powerful than others was how well one could use them.
Assuming lightning is a element, what could it be used for?
-> Ionizing air? giving things power? cutting things power can't? Radiation?
Any way metal manipulation could be usfuel?
-> Magnetism? Radio? Biological Catalyst?
So any element that'd probably be affective against air?
-> water in the form of steam? Lightning? Wood?
Technically you could make people explode, if you had water magic? Or have a Zombie army.
-> explode would be a little hard but possible, burning would be more likely. perhaps, but did you want to make a shout out to Blood-Bending? Perhaps, zombie army would be something a bit magical for air with the whole breath of life thing.

And unconventional elements? Let's start with, water and air.
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